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Friday, 26.04.2024, 07:10
Robot to marry same-sex couples outside Lithuanian government building on Valentine's Day
Three civic
and political organizations are organizing the event to encourage the general
public and politicians to take a more open approach to sexual minorities.
"This year we want to spread the idea that people
in Lithuania should become more open on LGBT issues and feel empathy for those
who do not have such rights in Lithuania," Mykolas Knyza, chairman of the Lithuanian Liberal Youth organization, told BNS on
January 29th.
The event, dubbed the "the wedding of the
century", is scheduled for Feb. 14, two days before Feb. 16, when the
modern state of Lithuania celebrates its centennial.
It is planned that couples will be "married"
by a humanoid robot.
"We associate a robot with bureaucracy. It will
act as we program it to act," Arturas Rudomanskis, chairman of the
Tolerant Youth Association, told BNS.
Those in favor of regulating by law same-sex
relationship say that homosexual couples in Lithuania are now discriminated
against, because such people have no right to inheritance or automatic access
to information about their partner's health in an emergency, and they cannot
represent each other in court proceedings.
Critics of legalization of same-sex marriage and
partnership say that homosexual couples are not traditional families and that
putting in place regulation of their relationship would be a step toward
allowing sexual minorities to adopt children.
A survey found in October 2016 that 11% of Lithuanians
would support same-sex partnership and seven% would favor the idea of
legalizing homosexual marriage.